Corks, screw caps and wine consumers of the Campanha Gaúcha

The Campanha Gaúcha is a region the South of Brazil with a crescent production in fine wines. Corks or similar were the materials most utilized to seal the bottles, actually are utilized too screw caps. The objective of this research was investigated if the consumer of the Campanha considers the type of seal of the bottles at the moment of purchase. A questionnaire was elaborated and applied to seventy wine consumers, where was possible to measure the principals factors that lead these consumers to buy of bottle wine. Analyzed the data, referring the screw caps 45.71% believe that this type of seal is interesting just for young wines; As for sealing 85.71% considers indifferent the type of material to seal the bottle, because consider the variety and the price as the main factor in the buying decision; However, 14.29% of these consumers said just buy wines sealed by corks and similar. Therefore, despite the corks are linked with the culture of consumption of wine, exist a significant percentage of consumers that are more interested to purchase wines with a variety desired and with attractives prices, than specifically linked to type of seal.


Introduction
Brazil is the third largest producer of grapes and fine wines from Latin America [1], the southern tip of the country is the main producing area of fine wines, and the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), the main producer.In RS, there are five main regions of production of these wines, and the Campanha Gaúcha -located between the parallels 30 • and 31 • southwest the second largest area of potential growth and development over the past 10 years.
With the shortage of corks and high prices charged for each unit, many alternatives appeared over time to mitigate the impact of the cost of production of a bottle, such as agglomerated cork gaskets, synthetic and screw caps (metal lid with an internal inert plastic cover).
Brazil is part of the new world winemakers countries as well as Australia and New Zealand seal that about 90% of their wines with screw caps [2], Australia being a leading producer and exporter of wines in the world, the advantages of the covers thread is the inhibition of unpleasant smells caused by resection corks, from contamination by TCA (2-4-6 Trichloroanisol) [3] volatile chemical component that causes smells musty and also the low manufacturing cost.
The wineries of the region has increasingly invested in new technologies to develop competitive and easily accepted by consumers and some products has been adhering to the use of this type of fence for greater viability of their business [4], wine consumers in Brazil in general were strongly influenced by the methods of consumption a Corresponding author: israelcordeiro13@yahoo.com.br of the old world wine, once the largest producer of fine wines in the country -the Serra Gaúcha, is colonized by Italian immigrants producing wines for over 100 years in Brazil.
Accordingly, we sought to know if among the factors that lead the consumer of wines from the region of Campanha choose a bottle for consumption it takes into account the type of sealing the bottles [5].

Material and methods
A questionnaire was developed with nine objective questions and personally applied for seventy consumers of fine wines, where measured individually to family income, the number of bottles purchased for own consumption of each individual, the factors that led him to choose a bottle of wine in date of their acquisition, knowledge about the different types of sealing the bottle and the opinion on the stoppers and the like and screw caps, the questionnaire was repeated more than once the same question, trying to eliminate some kind of error trend influenced by questions.
After the interviews, the data from the questionnaires were evaluated individually and entered into an electronic spreadsheet.

Results and discussion
The preferences of consumers and opinions after the analysis of questionnaires are shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3  and 4.
With respect to consumer preference in the use of corks and the like as seals, 68.56% of consumers prefer this BIO Web of Conferences  type of seal is present both in young wines as the guard.However, 21.43% just to find interesting wines guard, another 10% had other opinions.
Figure 2 indicates that 51.43% of consumers had no opinion or other opinion related to screw caps as a sealant material.However, 45.71% of consumers believe that at least the young wines should be sealed with this type of material and 2.85% find it interesting that all ranges of wines were sealed with screw caps.
When consumers were asked regarding the factors that influenced to choose a bottle of wine, 38.57% responded that the variety of wine was the main factor of choice, followed by 20% of the product price and 12.85% lead account the brand.Other 11.42% of consumers consider the brand, the price and the variety of the grape as a determining factor.Although 10% considered the variety and the product price and 7.14% consider other factors.
Figure 4 shows the result of questioning regarding the type of sealing the bottle directly influencing the sale of a bottle of wine.When asked about the type of sealing the bottles, 85.71% reported that it was indifferent at the time of purchase, but 14.29% of consumers reported that only bought wines sealed with cork stoppers or similar.

Conclusion
It was found that despite the cork stoppers and similar materials are traditionally tied to the culture of wine consumption, a significant percentage of consumers who are more interested in purchasing their wines with the desired variety, with an attractive value and brand of their choice, regardless of the type of material that will be used in the corking.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Consumer preferences in using a sealant and the like corks of bottles of wine.

Figure 2 .Figure 3 .
Figure 2. The Consumer preferences in the use of screw caps like seal option of bottles of wine.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4.The type of sealing as purchase decision factor.